Palestinians Asking Pakistan For Help

Israel is not a country. It's a bunch zionist terrorists who have taken over the land of palestinians and palestinians are not strong enough to defend themselves like the way pak army is able to defend the nation against TTP terrorists.

Yaar jews are not bad at all....in fact there have been countless of them standing besides the Palestinians.
You need to understand Zionists and extremists, to much extent are fundamentally like the khwarij.....same code of conduct and modus operandi besides the fact that khwarij killed their own whilst the Zionists pick on Palestinians. They have the exact same dirty mentality.....a superiority complex and an appetite for killing.

Bas yeh hai kay they are extremely united...well informed and well educated; thus they have consolidated immense power.
Read on Haredi Judaism......in fact if you had a Haredi rabbi and an extremist sheikh standing besides each other in their respective get ups and expressing their respective views.....you will literally find 95% of similarities.

Sorry bro but Allah hates them and i hate them. Period. They killed prophets and today they kill kids women and elderly. Bomb hospitals and schools and then hide behind anti semitism.

Yaar Butterfly, tunnel vision tau aap ka hai - you want to see things from one perspective, sure go ahead. Even Taliban was in the Government once, they were still terrorists then, terrorists today.

There was a 12 hour cease fire and PLO asked for extension to bury the dead. Israel offered to extend the ceasefire by 4 hours, and Hamas started the rocket attacks immediately. Again, Hamas is not the government, PLO's Fatah is the Government.

Hamas has fired 100 rockets in Gaza on Gazans themselves. Was it bad aim, defective missiles, or their real intentions?

A senior PLO official proposed a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire Tuesday in the Gaza war, saying he spoke in the name of Hamas, but was contradicted a short while later by a spokesman of the group.

Edited by Felicius, 29 July 2014 - 02:33 PM.

Hakim Bey: Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head
Napoleon Bonaparte: The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!

India never existed as an entity, Palestine did. The partition of "India" was the creation of states from within an articial entity. Palestine existed before hand, the creation of Pakistan and India was agreed, Israel was not.

Either way, Eid mubarak, you enternal troll.

Eid Mubarak to you as well

Israel and Pakistan/Bangladesh were never really an entity.

India always existed as an entity, the rulers were British, and before them were Moghuls, and before them Ashoka, but nevertheless India.

Palestine too was ruled by the British, and they brought in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 - the Arabs themselves accepted it mind you.

British partitioned India and we are fighting here. British partitioned Palestine and they are fighting there.

Both Hindus and Arabs were unhappy. If Pakistan will defend their independence then why won't Israel?

Gaza became Egyptian controlled, and West Bank became Jordanian controlled. Then the Arab League decided to invade Israel in Sept. 1948 - we all know what happened after. Arabs started conspiracy against each other, of what was left with unoccupied Palestine, and in Dec. 1948 decided that there should be one ruler, and wanted King Abdullah 1 of Jordan to be the ruler (Jericho Conference). Internal conflict started after. Black September began insurgency in Jordan, Pakistan Army went, led by then-Brigadier Zia Ul-Haq, massacred 25000 Palestinians, guilty and innocent both. Black September became PLO and the discards of PLO became Hamas.

I have wanted to see peace there for over 20 years. Hamas destroyed every single chance for PLO, especially in 1995 and again today. PLO and the Palestinians want peace and accept Israel as a country. Hamas wants to see Israel totally gone; that is not happening.

Edited by Felicius, 29 July 2014 - 03:08 PM.

Hakim Bey: Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head
Napoleon Bonaparte: The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!

Yaar Butterfly, tunnel vision tau aap ka hai - you want to see things from one perspective, sure go ahead. Even Taliban was in the Government once, they were still terrorists then, terrorists today.

There was a 12 hour cease fire and PLO asked for extension to bury the dead. Israel offered to extend the ceasefire by 4 hours, and Hamas started the rocket attacks immediately. Again, Hamas is not the government, PLO's Fatah is the Government.

Hamas has fired 100 rockets in Gaza on Gazans themselves. Was it bad aim, defective missiles, or their real intentions?

PLO offers truce as at least 100 killed in Gaza
A senior PLO official proposed a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire Tuesday in the Gaza war, saying he spoke in the name of Hamas, but was contradicted a short while later by a spokesman of the group.

Lol yes isreal agreed to extend the ceasefire as long S they can continue to hunt and destroy tunnels. Would you accept that as a ceasefire. I may be blinkered but not blind.

Lol yes isreal agreed to extend the ceasefire as long S they can continue to hunt and destroy tunnels. Would you accept that as a ceasefire. I may be blinkered but not blind.

Building tunnels going into Israel is Hamas right?

Wouldn't Pakistan destroy tunnels made by Indians or Afghans? Cease fire or not we will too close the tunnels, aap bakaar key demand tau nahi kar saktey ho.

And if PLO is okay with it, then Hamas has no right to start firing - that definitely makes them terrorists (just like the TTP).

Edited by Felicius, 29 July 2014 - 03:30 PM.

Hakim Bey: Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head
Napoleon Bonaparte: The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!

Shehz, So you say that it is okay for Israel to slaughter Palestinians, Starve them, humiliate them and butcher them

But if Palestinians fight back then it is terrorism?

Why go off the tangent? I have already said they are both the same - evil. Israel is stronger and what they are doing what was expected in the circumstances. You can go in the jungle and throw a rock at the lion, don't blame them when they kill you (they don't throw rocks).

As for the Palestinians, Hamas is the terrorist group who are taking matters in their own hands. PLO is the Government.

Gaza is also governed by Egypt. Hence, Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel after the 48 war.

Pakistan will go hard against the TTP as well, even though they may keep on saying that they don't recognize Pakistan.

If some group from Niagara Falls (not the Canadian Government) keeps on shelling Buffalo, the Americans will first warn Canada, and then get fed up and strike back. Maybe not so hard as the Israelis, but they will. Israel is doing the same.

Tell me yourself, Egypt is not allowing tunnels, PLO is not striking Israel, what business did Hamas had?

You say Israel is bad, I am placing blame on Hamas; they are hurting all the Palestinians. Unless they are strong enough to take over the Government and invade Israel, they are only hurting Palestine.

You favour Hamas, sure. I don't have to, even the PLO doesn't.

Hakim Bey: Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head
Napoleon Bonaparte: The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people!

lets go back to the discussion. Hamas didnt start the hostilities, it was Israel. News flash, it was Israel who turn the police matter into a War....Hamas didnt even kidnapped the teenagers, even Israeli Police chief has said that on the record.

The Hamas may have had made blunders but recently they have shown the signs to get their acts together. They Joined Fatah unity government and shown willingness to settle things down. Israelis are continue to build in occupied territories despite the international rejection of those illegal constructions in occupied land. Peace talk collapse not because of Hamas, Fatah but Israel.

I am not saying that we shouldnt criticized Hamas and other actors in the middle east, but Put the blame where it deserves.

of course, you have your opinion and everyone should but Israelis are clearly an aggressor here. They have no regard for human life unless it is jew.

Walk away if you want toit's ok, if you need toyou can run, but you can never hideFrom the shadow that's creeping up beside youThere's a magic running through your soulBut you can't have it all

Let me be very clear, the people who responsible for this whole mess the Arabs themself. I agree with Shehz here.

The arab ignorance towards non arab muslims has resulted in this tragedy. Palestinians are pay for the crimes committed by the germans against the jews and they are pay a price for Arab betrayal of Ottomons during first world war.

Also this whole thing should be reminder to those who still oppose to the creation of Pakistan. Had Jinnah not been our leader and we were given leaders like this Religious crazies and fanatics. Today, India would be treating us the same way Israel treats Palestinians.

Palestinians should have take the land when they were offered in 1948, it was lot more then what is they want.

Thank you Jinnah for creating Pakistan.

Walk away if you want toit's ok, if you need toyou can run, but you can never hideFrom the shadow that's creeping up beside youThere's a magic running through your soulBut you can't have it all

Building tunnels going into Israel is Hamas right?
Wouldn't Pakistan destroy tunnels made by Indians or Afghans? Cease fire or not we will too close the tunnels, aap bakaar key demand tau nahi kar saktey ho.

And if PLO is okay with it, then Hamas has no right to start firing - that definitely makes them terrorists (just like the TTP).

Yes BUILDING TUNNELS IS HAMAS IS RIGHT as long as Israel flys drones and fighter aircraft overhead. Hamas has used its terrain to fight effectively. If I was them I would do the same. My question is why are you so supportive of the Zionist Nazis? Who the hell are PLO. They are not even fighting they are watching whilst innocent Palestinians are being killed. JUST LIKE TEH REST REST OF US SO CALLED MUSLIMS.
Pakistan doesn't create concentration camps like Gaza and West Bank in India or Afghanistan and then bomb their hospitals, schools and musjids. If it did I would support the opposition. Nice try at deflecting the issues but try sticking to Palestine.
OH THE STUFF YOU ADD IN URDU DOESNT ALWAYS MAKE SENSE. SORRY CANT COMMENT.

Let me be very clear, the people who responsible for this whole mess the Arabs themself. I agree with Shehz here.The arab ignorance towards non arab muslims has resulted in this tragedy. Palestinians are pay for the crimes committed by the germans against the jews and they are pay a price for Arab betrayal of Ottomons during first world war.Also this whole thing should be reminder to those who still oppose to the creation of Pakistan. Had Jinnah not been our leader and we were given leaders like this Religious crazies and fanatics. Today, India would be treating us the same way Israel treats Palestinians.Palestinians should have take the land when they were offered in 1948, it was lot more then what is they want.Thank you Jinnah for creating Pakistan.

I agree with the arrogance of the Arabs. But I ask you where is your compassion for the babies who had no say, the pregnant mother who gave birth after death. The grandfather in a wheel chair, the wounded in hospitals. Even if the Arabs hate me TODAY I STAND WITH THE PALESTINIANS. We will have to address the differences later. This is why Jews are successful and Muslims are not.
Regarding 1948. Would you have accepted, if today your uncle comes along and takes half your fathers land at gunpoint in your village will you accept? COME ON BRO. I EXPECT MORE FROM YOU AND I READ YOUR STUFF I KNOW YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS.

Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel, according to Western security sources.

Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organisation based in east Beirut.

Hamas officials are believed to have already made an initial cash down payment to secure the deal, and are now hoping that North Korea will soon begin shipping extra supplies of weapons to Gaza.

“Hamas is looking for ways to replenish its stocks of missiles because of the large numbers it has fired at Israel in recent weeks,” explained a security official. “North Korea is an obvious place to seek supplies because Pyongyang already has close ties with a number of militant Islamist groups in the Middle East.”

Using intermediaries based in Lebanon, Hamas officials are said to be intensifying their efforts to sign a new agreement with Pyongyang to provide hundreds of missiles together with communications equipment that will improve the ability of Hamas fighters to coordinate operations against Israeli forces.

Like other Islamist terror groups in the region such as Hizbollah, Hamas has forged close links with North Korea, which is keen to support groups that are opposed to Western interests in the region.

The relationship between Hamas and North Korea first became public in 2009 when 35 tons of arms, including surface-to-surface rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, were seized after a cargo plane carrying the equipment was forced to make an emergency landing at Bangkok airport. Investigators later confirmed that the arms cache has been destined for Iran, which then planned to smuggle the weapons to Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Following Israel’s latest military offensive against Hamas operatives based in Gaza, Western security officials say Hamas is now trying to persuade North Korea to provide fresh supplies of rockets to replace the thousands of missiles that have been fired at Israel since the commencement of hostilities two weeks ago.

Israeli military commanders supervising operations against Gaza believe North Korean experts have given Hamas advice on building the extensive network of tunnels in Gaza that has enabled fighters to move weapons without detection by Israeli drones, which maintain a constant monitoring operation over Gaza.

The North Koreans have one of the world’s most sophisticated network of tunnels running beneath the demilitarised zone with South Korea, and Israeli commanders believe Hamas has used this expertise to improve their own tunnel network.

The Hamas arsenal has become increasing sophisticated with foreign assistance and now boasts five variants of rockets and missiles. Its basic weapon is the Iranian-designed Qassam rocket with a range of less than ten miles but it also has a large stockpile of the 122mm Katyushas which boast a range of up to 30 miles.

The introduction of the M-75 and Syrian-made M0302 missiles means Hamas boast offensive weapons with a longer range of up to 100 miles and a much greater explosive impact.

Since the 2012 eight-day war, Hamas has increased the size and strength of its rocket arsenal. Israeli military intelligence puts its stockpile at around 10,000 rockets and mortars, including long-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the northern port city of Haifa.

Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel, according to Western security sources.

Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organisation based in east Beirut.

Hamas officials are believed to have already made an initial cash down payment to secure the deal, and are now hoping that North Korea will soon begin shipping extra supplies of weapons to Gaza.

“Hamas is looking for ways to replenish its stocks of missiles because of the large numbers it has fired at Israel in recent weeks,” explained a security official. “North Korea is an obvious place to seek supplies because Pyongyang already has close ties with a number of militant Islamist groups in the Middle East.”

Using intermediaries based in Lebanon, Hamas officials are said to be intensifying their efforts to sign a new agreement with Pyongyang to provide hundreds of missiles together with communications equipment that will improve the ability of Hamas fighters to coordinate operations against Israeli forces.

Like other Islamist terror groups in the region such as Hizbollah, Hamas has forged close links with North Korea, which is keen to support groups that are opposed to Western interests in the region.
The relationship between Hamas and North Korea first became public in 2009 when 35 tons of arms, including surface-to-surface rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, were seized after a cargo plane carrying the equipment was forced to make an emergency landing at Bangkok airport. Investigators later confirmed that the arms cache has been destined for Iran, which then planned to smuggle the weapons to Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Following Israel’s latest military offensive against Hamas operatives based in Gaza, Western security officials say Hamas is now trying to persuade North Korea to provide fresh supplies of rockets to replace the thousands of missiles that have been fired at Israel since the commencement of hostilities two weeks ago.
Israeli military commanders supervising operations against Gaza believe North Korean experts have given Hamas advice on building the extensive network of tunnels in Gaza that has enabled fighters to move weapons without detection by Israeli drones, which maintain a constant monitoring operation over Gaza.
The North Koreans have one of the world’s most sophisticated network of tunnels running beneath the demilitarised zone with South Korea, and Israeli commanders believe Hamas has used this expertise to improve their own tunnel network.
The Hamas arsenal has become increasing sophisticated with foreign assistance and now boasts five variants of rockets and missiles. Its basic weapon is the Iranian-designed Qassam rocket with a range of less than ten miles but it also has a large stockpile of the 122mm Katyushas which boast a range of up to 30 miles.
The introduction of the M-75 and Syrian-made M0302 missiles means Hamas boast offensive weapons with a longer range of up to 100 miles and a much greater explosive impact.
Since the 2012 eight-day war, Hamas has increased the size and strength of its rocket arsenal. Israeli military intelligence puts its stockpile at around 10,000 rockets and mortars, including long-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the northern port city of Haifa.

yaara aapas mein larna band karo, stop calling each other names, races, groups etc.....this is exactly what our enemies would want....u all have great minds, if u all contribute constructively u can make a difference....

In 2008: Hamas offered a Hudna, or a truce, for 10 years if Israel withdraws to its pre-67 borders.

In 2012: Hamas agreed to accept the future Palestinian state with in the Pre 67 borders.

In 2014: Without wanting Israel to withdraw from an inch of occupied territory, or cease illegal settlements. Hamas asked for lifting of an illegal siege of Gaza.

And Israel responded to all of this with 3 wars and killing more than 3000 Palestinians.

And then they say, Hamas does not want peace??

This is the flag of Islam, for you cannot separate the Muslim league from Islam. Many people misunderstand us when we talk of Islam, particularly our Hindu friends. When we say this flag is the flag of Islam, they think that we are introducing religion into politics, A FACT OF WHICH WE ARE PROUD. Islam gives us a complete code. It is not only a religion, but it contains laws, philosophy and politics. It contains everything that matters to a man from morning to night. When we talk of Islam, we take it as an all embracing word.

- Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (11th January 1938)

Let us go back to our holy book, the Quran. Let us revert to the Hadeeth and the the great traditions of Islam which have everything in them for our guidance if we correctly interpret them and follow our great Holy book, the Quran.

- Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (6th March 1946)

"It is my strong belief, that there is no ideology which is more democratic, enlightened and progressive than Islam."

Hamas is the legitimate government of Palestine. They won the last parliamentary elections after which Israel laid siege to Gaza.

This is the flag of Islam, for you cannot separate the Muslim league from Islam. Many people misunderstand us when we talk of Islam, particularly our Hindu friends. When we say this flag is the flag of Islam, they think that we are introducing religion into politics, A FACT OF WHICH WE ARE PROUD. Islam gives us a complete code. It is not only a religion, but it contains laws, philosophy and politics. It contains everything that matters to a man from morning to night. When we talk of Islam, we take it as an all embracing word.

- Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (11th January 1938)

Let us go back to our holy book, the Quran. Let us revert to the Hadeeth and the the great traditions of Islam which have everything in them for our guidance if we correctly interpret them and follow our great Holy book, the Quran.

- Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (6th March 1946)

"It is my strong belief, that there is no ideology which is more democratic, enlightened and progressive than Islam."

Alright here is the thing, in order for the Palestinian resistance(Hamas and IJ) to be successful.....a huge and dangerous political game has to be played.

You'll need a regime change in Egypt and Jordan....pro-resistance regimes. Until or unless there is no strategic debt for the resistance you can absolutely forget about any chances of proper success.

Now here is the catch.....Egypt and Jordan both belong to US/Saudi camp. USA and KSA can very easily change and disrupt regimes at their will....case in point Morsi government and Assad regime....now who is willing to flirt with them? Forget about flirting with this notion...I ask who has the capability and the will to accomplish such a task?

PS. Regime change in Syria will be useless due to the geography....more specifically the Golan Heights. Israelis are in an excellent position...they have the height advantage so it is properly difficult for incursions to take place.

PPS. Our PM is still in KSA paying homage to his overlords.....what do you think Pakistan can do?

“We have come to conclude that these men were acting on their own.” posted on July 29, 2014, at 4:13 p.m.Sheera Frenkel BuzzFeed Staff

HEBRON, West Bank — Three weeks into Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israeli security officials are no closer to finding the men held responsible for the killings that sparked the assault, and some of those working on the case are strongly rejecting the Israeli government’s assertion that the alleged killers were linked to the militant group Hamas.

Israel has failed to capture Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, and Amar Abu Aisha, 32, the two men it says were behind the murder of three Israeli teens on June 12. At least four of the men’s relatives have been detained over the last month in connection to the kidnapping and killing. They remain under gag order, meaning they cannot be made public or reported on inside Israel.

In the weeks following the kidnapping, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel knew “for a fact” that Hamas was behind the kidnapping, adding, “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.”

But one Israeli intelligence officer who works in the West Bank and is intimately involved in investigating the case spoke to BuzzFeed on condition of anonymity and said he felt the kidnapping had been used by politicians trying to promote their own agenda.

“That announcement was premature,” the intelligence officer said. “If there was an order, from any of the senior Hamas leadership in Gaza or abroad, this would be an easier case to investigate. We would have that intelligence data. But there is no data, so we have come to conclude that these men were acting on their own.”

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the BBC last week that police believed the killers did not have ties to Hamas in Gaza — but did to Hamas in the West Bank. But the Israeli intelligence officer noted that the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, and Israeli intelligence are the ones taking the lead on the investigation, not the police.

Like other Israeli military officials, the officer said he was worried that events on the ground had been misrepresented by politicians. Netanyahu has long been pressed by more right-wing elements of his government to address Hamas’ growing popularity in the West Bank. In the month prior to the kidnapping, Israel had strongly lobbied against Hamas joining together in a unity government with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — a move that brought Hamas into the fold of political life there and could, one day, allow its elected officials to openly campaign in the West Bank. “Hamas in the West Bank is fragmented, there are many factions — could these teens have broken off and called themselves a separate Hamas faction? Possibly. But that is not the most likely scenario, nor the one we are pursuing,” the officer said.

Former Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin, who long oversaw Israel’s security operation in the West Bank, recently told Der Spiegel he did not believe Hamas was behind the kidnapping.

“Hamas didn’t want this war at first either. But as things often are in the Middle East, things happened differently. It began with the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. From what I read and from what I know about how Hamas operates, I think that the Hamas political bureau was taken by surprise. It seems as though it was not coordinated or directed by them,” said Diskin.

Relatives of the two men Israel said carried out the brutal murders say they did once publicly associate themselves with Hamas. Israeli columnist Shlomi Eldar wrote that even then the family had a history of acting independently. Relatives say the families broke with the movement years ago, due to differences of opinion over suicide bombings and other tactics used by Hamas.

Relatives, agitated over the disappearance of Qawasmeh and Abu Aisha, who have not been heard from since the night of the kidnapping, said they believed the two men were not under orders from Hamas. “My nephew is not a Hamas member,” said Ammar Abu Aisheh, the aunt of Amar abu Aisha. “I know for sure he did not belong to Hamas.”

In Ramallah, Sameera Halaykeh, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, also sought to distance her movement from the two young men.

“It has become obvious that Hamas had nothing to do with this,” said Halaykeh. “It was definitely bad timing for Hamas to order such a kidnapping. Up to now Israel has not found the perpetrators of this act.”

Israel’s Gaza offensive has entered its third week, with more than 1,200 Palestinians and 56 Israelis killed. Netanyahu and his key allies in government have increasingly spoken of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, a move that would see Hamas, currently pledged to violent resistance against Israel, routed out from Gaza.

But it was the kidnapping of the three teens — Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Sha’er, and Naftali Frankel — that was the immediate trigger for the current war. It took more than two weeks to find their bodies, in which time Israel arrested hundreds of Hamas members in the West Bank, issuing an order cutting off family prison visits as further punishment for the militant group. Despite assessments by Israeli intelligence that the three teens had been killed the night they were kidnapped, many continued to believe they were alive, due to suggestions made by Israeli politicians. When they were found dead, Israel erupted in grief and rage. As Israel further cracked down on Hamas in the West Bank, Hamas, and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip, began firing dozens of rockets into southern and central communities in Israel.

Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennet and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have called the war in Gaza “inevitable” during interviews this week with Israel’s army radio. The dozens of attack tunnels snaking their way from Gaza into southern Israeli communities would have forced Israel to act sooner or later, they said, or suffer a massacre of their civilians at the hands of Hamas fighters.

Three days after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the current war in Gaza, he held a press conference in Tel Aviv during which he said, in Hebrew, according to the Times of Israel, “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.”

It’s worth listening carefully when Netanyahu speaks to the Israeli people. What is going on in Palestine today is not really about Hamas. It is not about rockets. It is not about “human shields” or terrorism or tunnels. It is about Israel’s permanent control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives. That is what Netanyahu is really saying, and that is what he now admits he has “always” talked about. It is about an unswerving, decades-long Israeli policy of denying Palestine self-determination, freedom, and sovereignty.

What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of Gaza has never been lifted.

As Netanyahu’s own words show, however, Israel will accept nothing short of the acquiescence of Palestinians to their own subordination. It will accept only a Palestinian “state” that is stripped of all the attributes of a real state: control over security, borders, airspace, maritime limits, contiguity, and, therefore, sovereignty. The twenty-three-year charade of the “peace process” has shown that this is all Israel is offering, with the full approval of Washington. Whenever the Palestinians have resisted that pathetic fate (as any nation would), Israel has punished them for their insolence. This is not new.

Punishing Palestinians for existing has a long history. It was Israel’s policy before Hamas and its rudimentary rockets were Israel’s boogeyman of the moment, and before Israel turned Gaza into an open-air prison, punching bag, and weapons laboratory. In 1948, Israel killed thousands of innocents, and terrorized and displaced hundreds of thousands more, in the name of creating a Jewish-majority state in a land that was then sixty-five per cent Arab. In 1967, it displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians again, occupying territory that it still largely controls, forty-seven years later.

In 1982, in a quest to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization and extinguish Palestinian nationalism, Israel invaded Lebanon, killing seventeen thousand people, mostly civilians. Since the late nineteen-eighties, when Palestinians under occupation rose up, mostly by throwing stones and staging general strikes, Israel has arrested tens of thousands of Palestinians: over seven hundred and fifty thousand people have spent time in Israeli prisons since 1967, a number that amounts to forty per cent of the adult male population today. They have emerged with accounts of torture, which are substantiated by human-rights groups like B’tselem. During the second intifada, which began in 2000, Israel reinvaded the West Bank (it had never fully left). The occupation and colonization of Palestinian land continued unabated throughout the “peace process” of the nineteen-nineties, and continues to this day. And yet, in America, the discussion ignores this crucial, constantly oppressive context, and is instead too often limited to Israeli “self-defense” and the Palestinians’ supposed responsibility for their own suffering.

In the past seven or more years, Israel has besieged, tormented, and regularly attacked the Gaza Strip. The pretexts change: they elected Hamas; they refused to be docile; they refused to recognize Israel; they fired rockets; they built tunnels to circumvent the siege; and on and on. But each pretext is a red herring, because the truth of ghettos—what happens when you imprison 1.8 million people in a hundred and forty square miles, about a third of the area of New York City, with no control of borders, almost no access to the sea for fishermen (three out of the twenty kilometres allowed by the Oslo accords), no real way in or out, and with drones buzzing overhead night and day—is that, eventually, the ghetto will fight back. It was true in Soweto and Belfast, and it is true in Gaza. We might not like Hamas or some of its methods, but that is not the same as accepting the proposition that Palestinians should supinely accept the denial of their right to exist as a free people in their ancestral homeland.

This is precisely why the United States’ support of current Israeli policy is folly. Peace was achieved in Northern Ireland and in South Africa because the United States and the world realized that they had to put pressure on the stronger party, holding it accountable and ending its impunity. Northern Ireland and South Africa are far from perfect examples, but it is worth remembering that, to achieve a just outcome, it was necessary for the United States to deal with groups like the Irish Republican Army and the African National Congress, which engaged in guerrilla war and even terrorism. That was the only way to embark on a road toward true peace and reconciliation. The case of Palestine is not fundamentally different.

Instead, the United States puts its thumb on the scales in favor of the stronger party. In this surreal, upside-down vision of the world, it almost seems as if it is the Israelis who are occupied by the Palestinians, and not the other way around. In this skewed universe, the inmates of an open-air prison are besieging a nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world.

If we are to move away from this unreality, the U.S. must either reverse its policies or abandon its claim of being an “honest broker.” If the U.S. government wants to fund and arm Israel and parrot its talking points that fly in the face of reason and international law, so be it. But it should not claim the moral high ground and intone solemnly about peace. And it should certainly not insult Palestinians by saying that it cares about them or their children, who are dying in Gaza today.

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid-Washington Palestinian-Israeli negotiations of 1991-93. His most recent book is “Brokers of Deceit.”

For the third time in five years, Israel is engaging in a large-scale assault on the Gaza Strip. In three weeks of indiscriminate bombardment, it has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and injured more than 6,000, the vast majority of them civilians, and an appalling number of children, who make up most of Gaza’s population, and who, even when not physically maimed, have been terrorized in their hundreds of thousands. Forty-seven Israelis — almost all of them soldiers — have been killed in turn.

On top of the casualty figures, the scale of material devastation is enormous. The UN estimates that the homes of more than 3,600 families have been heavily damaged or totally destroyed, leaving 22,000 people homeless. Israel claims that it has warned people to flee; more than 200,000 have done so, which would be reckoned a human calamity in Chicago or London but, happening in Gaza, raises scarcely an eyebrow around the world. According to the U.N., however, Israel has blanketed almost half of the territory with such warnings, and it has refused to let people out of Gaza to seek shelter, so in fact terrified families have essentially nowhere to go, and have been cut down by Israeli shrapnel and flechette darts when they flee. The overwhelming majority of Gazans are now effectively cut off from water, sewage and electrical services — in a modern urban environment, in the middle of a hot Mediterranean summer.

All of this, we are relentlessly told by Israel’s once well-oiled but nowadays creaking and spluttering propaganda machine, is to prevent rocket attacks into Israel. Time and time again, in 2008-9, in 2012 and again now, it has meticulously been documented that the surest way to prevent rocket attacks on Israel is for Israel itself to abide by ceasefire obligations that, each time, it disregards. Time and time again, however, Israel and its dwindling band of supporters in Europe and the U.S. weave tangled webs of hopelessly convoluted and mendacious distortions of simple chronology, vainly attempting to reverse the relationship of cause and effect, and to rewrite the sequence of events on the fly.

The current flareup, as on previous occasions, is the direct result not of the rocket attacks about which we have heard so much but rather of massive Israeli provocations: in this case, the extraordinary intensification of Israeli harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank, involving the shooting in cold blood of unarmed civilians — including children — and the arbitrary arrest and detention, over a two-week stretch, of almost a thousand Palestinians on the flimsy pretext that they were somehow involved in the kidnap of three young Israeli settlers whom the government knew (though it cynically used press censorship to withhold the news from its public) to have been murdered within hours. The West Bank violence culminated in the kidnapping and burning alive of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish activists whipped into a frenzy by their own government, which finally, by way of relief, turned to Gaza once again as a convenient outlet for Israeli anger and frustration, Hamas having provided by then the necessary pretext in the form of all-too-predictable rocket attacks in response to the dramatic Israeli escalation in the West Bank.

We’ve seen this movie before, in 2008-9 and 2012, and we all know how it ends. No matter how much ordnance Israel unloads on the people of Gaza, and no matter how many families it shatters or lives it gratuitously cuts short, it will be yet another ceasefire — not sheer mindless violence and not Israel’s stentorian proclamations — that will restore a provisional and restive calm.

It will be provisional and restive because calm, in itself, will do nothing to address the underlying cause of the current violence. Having corralled 1.8 million people into what is in effect the largest prison on earth, having subjected the people of Gaza to years of withering siege punctuated by random bombardments that has reduced their lives in essence to a collective version of Waiting for Godot, Israel seems to think that life ought to carry on as normal on the beaches and in the discotheques of Tel Aviv.

This delusional attitude is the extension of the same warped view that allows the Israelis to continuously subject Palestinians to violence, which takes many forms, and unfolds not merely in bombs and shells but mostly at the level of a mutilated and restricted everyday life, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as Gaza and countless refugee camps. This attitude is also the direct consequence of the thoroughly mainstream Israeli view that strips Palestinians of rights, of agency and even of humanity, reducing them merely — as one Israeli parliamentarian recently approvingly put it — to “snakes,” or at least to an abstract “demographic threat” that needs to be contained by any means necessary. The very existence of Palestinians, their ongoing presence as a Christian and Muslim majority in the combined space of Israel and the occupied territories — a land in which there is only one state, which identifies itself as exclusively Jewish — is the problem to which both mundane and extraordinary violence seems, for Israel, to be a kind of solution.

Well, it’s not. Israel has been trying to eradicate the Palestinian “threat” for six decades, and it has failed, and will continue to fail. No amount of violence will resolve the underlying contradictions, or diminish the Palestinian claim to justice, equality, and rights.

Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, is the author of “Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation.”